US unemployment is far WORSE than CBS says

First of all, the U.S. Department of Labor uses a variety of different measures for the real unemployment rate in the U.S., most of which are never reported on by the U.S. media.

On the one hand, there is the “official” rate of unemployment (currently 9.1%) that is cited by the U.S. press (and, implicitly, by the CBS New article in question) more than 90% of the time.

On the other hand, there is a more comprehensive U.S. Department of Labor unemployment rate that includes “discouraged” workers (who are no longer looking for any of the exceedingly scarce jobs now available) and part-timers who would like to find a full time job but cannot. This figure—-which Bloomberg News, for instance, has been citing more and more often—-has long been over 16% (and, not long ago, as high as 17%).

That, however, is not the whole of it. None of the various U.S. Department of Labor statistical measures include ALL of the demographics that are now without work in the U.S. and that are, nonetheless, either seeking a job or are discouraged by the improbability of finding one—-such as those who live on family farms, those who are over 65, those who recently left school but have not been in the work force as of yet, etc.

Investor’s Business Daily and TIPP recently completed a survey of around 3000 Americans to determine the real unemployment rate in the U.S. without including any of the hedges or dodges that have been added to the official statistical methods of U.S. Department of Labor by both Republican and Democratic administrations so as to hide the truth from the American public about our more and more abject social conditions.

The average unemployment figure that resulted from their survey was 22.5%, i.e., a figure that is almost identical to the 24.1% unemployment rate that FDR inherited from Herbet Hoover.

Orwell Rolls In His Grave, featuring MCM – Buy the DVD

About News From Underground

News From Underground is a daily e-news service run by Mark Crispin Miller, a Professor of Culture and Communication at NYU. It is based on his belief that academics, like reporters, have a civic obligation to help keep the people well-informed, so that American democracy might finally work.

If you'd like to receive updates delivered to your inbox daily, sign up for News From Underground Alerts:

Help News From Underground!

Message from Mark: "I am a one-man operation, although assisted greatly by some volunteers, and, now and then, by people paid by others for one-time projects. There is no shortage of skilled, dedicated folks out there who want to help me. There is, however, nothing I can pay them with, unless you decide you can contribute something."